3 Kingdoms TD: Defenders’ Creed is a tower defense game quite similar to games like the hugely popular Plants Vs Zombies. Places your forces strategically to combat the oncoming baddies over increasingly trickier levels. Give your troops boosts and use power-ups to defeat the tougher enemies in this linear tower defense game that’s fun as it is addictive.

Pros & Cons:

Pros

Addictive!

Challenging!

Lots of units to deploy!

Upgradable units!

Cons

Very steep learning curve after the first few levels.

Features:

The game is based on battles from the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history and gameplay is heavily themed (we’ve seen this in the developer’s Arrow Defense game recently reviewed), despite being similar to Plants Vs Zombies- which is perhaps the best-known game of this genre. We’ve reviewed other games like this in the past- most notably perhaps was Carnival of Horrors. Essentially then, you place units in the way of oncoming baddies and aim to take them down before they reach you. You defend a tower which lies behind you and the game is over if the enemy breaks through.

As you progress through the levels you accumulate the skills of more and more units. These include: archer, infantry, heavy armor, brave knight, magical wizard, catapult and drummer. Combined, these defend the tower and generate income to buy new units with. Overseeing the action is a Hero (of which there are several to choose from as you progress in-game) and these have both instant and passive skills which can be executed in-game to often dazzling effect.

Playing 3 Kingdoms TD: Defenders’ Creed is fun and utilizing the skills available to you is very cool. I liked the graphics and gameplay reminded me heavily of Plants Vs Zombies, although arguably there is more background items and skills in this game. The game is a freemium title so expect the opportunities to make in-app purchases. These provide you with coins with which you can upgrade your troops and make your skills more powerful. I did find at around the level 5 mark the door closes on free play and you seriously need to think about upgrades to progress. That said, maybe I’m just a bad player… who knows? The value of the purchases vary from $0.99 up to $19.99 but you can also earn gold by downloading other apps via the SponsorPay service.

Fun Factor:

The game is fun, especially if you enjoy this genre of battle strategy gaming. However, it does get very tough very quickly meaning you’ll have to invest to make further progress. This does take the shine off the title a little but perhaps view the early levels as the ‘Lite’ version and then in-app purchases are needed to access the later levels.

Addictive:

Plants Vs Zombies was known as being a highly addictive and engrossing game and 3 Kingdoms TD: Defenders’ Creed is very similar. The only problem perhaps is, because users really need to upgrade around level 5/6 it can be frustrating being halted so early in the game. Plants Vs Zombies has a user-friendly learning curve and doesn’t push the need for in-app purchases on you (it’s a paid-for game anyway). In my mind then, the addictive experience you get with 3 Kingdoms TD: Defenders’ Creed is a little diminished in comparison.

Graphics:

The graphics are good- very stylised toward the Three Kingdoms motif and this works well. These games are often more puzzle/strategy than mere action gameplay and the visuals reflect that. The animation and design are very good but nothing to utterly blow you away, I think we are still waiting for a truly sumptuous HD experience with this genre and 3 Kingdoms TD: Defenders’ Creed isn’t quite there.

Accelerometer, Vibration & Sound:

The sound is very good and full of character, detail and effects.

AndroidTapp.com Rating

(3.9 out of 5)

Should you Download 3 Kingdoms TD: Defenders’ Creed? It’s a free game and, if you’ve previously enjoyed similar titles, definitely check it out. The game offers challenging gameplay and well designed characters and levels. It’s fun while the ‘free’ play lasts but I found you quickly face a wall of enemies that require some upgrades (via in-app purchases) for you to progress and make the most of the game. Definitely give it a look though.